…really. I’m going to tell you a big fish story. We’re at the lake–the three of us, Son, Husband, and I. It’s Son’s first time here and we were thrilled he could do a fly-by (of sorts) on his way home from a business trip.

He seems as pleased as we are with the new lake cottage–driving up with him was a treat. He began the short journey back to his childhood when we were within twenty minutes of our new place, recognizing old familiar landmarks like the bakery in town, the huge sign for the amusement park, the big lake cruiser, and the drive-in theater. He’s enjoying the water and our new community, but particularly, he’s getting a kick out fishing again.

He hasn’t fished since he was a teenager vacationing on this lake with us over ten years ago, so he was totally jacked to do it again. We stopped at the bait store for nightcrawlers and a fishing license on the way to the cottage. The two guys were out on the pier fishing within half an hour of unlocking the place and dropping our bags.

I’m not a person who fishes, but I’ve happily floated on my raft in the lake as they’ve thrown in their lines. Son even tried to convince me to haul his line back to a more likely looking fishing spot that he couldn’t reach with a cast. Sorry kid, that’s hardly giving the fish a fighting chance now, is it? Plus, it’s creepy under the trees–I’ll stay out in the middle of the bay, thanks.

Late last night, Son and Husband went back down to the dock to fish while I enjoyed some lovely down-time, reading for pleasure. After a couple of hours, I hear Son’s heavy tread on the deck. Then he opened the door and came with in both hands and knees covered in blood. Obviously Mom mode kicked in. “What the hell happened? Are you hurt? Is your dad okay?”

Flexing his fingers at me, he just grinned–the same grin I’d seen on his face hundreds of times before when he’d been fishing as a kid. “Nope, this is fish blood!” He sounded way too delighted. “Dad caught a giant carp–and it got wrapped up in the line and swallowed the hook and it bled all over the dock. I’ve gotta wash this off and get back down there with a bucket and a broom–the dock looks like we slaughtered a pig!!” This was all said in one breath and with great glee.

He washed his hands, wiped his knees off with a wet paper towel and then proceeded to show me pictures on his smart phone of the “catch.” It was a butt-ugly carp, about two feet long and bleeding gruesomely from its gill, where the line had wrapped around its body during the fight to haul it out of the lake.

And apparently, Son wasn’t the only one fascinated enough to photograph the poor fish. Two other men who were having adult beverages next door ran over to share the moment and caught poor old Mr. Carp on their phones as well. I got to hear the whole story in vivid detail when the guys came up from the dock for the night.

The catch has been the talk of the park. This afternoon, one of the other men pulling out of his dock in his boat called to Son and Husband, who were–you guessed it–fishing, “Hey heard you caught a big one last night!”

“Yup,” Husband called back. “It was about a two-foot carp!”

“Yeah, I saw the pictures. The dock looked like a crime scene.” our neighbor chortled as he cruised away.

Son and Husband just grinned at each other–this is lake life…how we’ve missed it! How happy we are to be back in the thick of it again, and how very pleased to have the kid joining us, even if just for a little while… Oh, the photos below are posted courtesy of Son, (who is also my webmaster/guru)–he felt the story worked so much better with visuals!